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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27437539">A Matter of Time</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/MegaUnchained/pseuds/MegaUnchained'>MegaUnchained</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Full Steam Ahead! [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Comedy, Female Characters, Female Friendship, Gen, Horror, Original Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 01:22:07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>12,335</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27437539</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/MegaUnchained/pseuds/MegaUnchained</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A quirky inventor creates a pocket watch, with far more power than she ever could have imagined. Now she and her best friend will soon find out that this gadget is both a blessing, and a curse.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Full Steam Ahead! [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2160156</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Matter of Time</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was a crisp and cool autumn day in Harper Bay, and as the air was chilling with stray leaves drifting around the clear azure sky, one woman was walking down the street towards a rather peculiar house. The woman in question was none other than Kim, Harper Bay’s aspiring drummer with an appetite as big as her attitude, and the house was none other than the Victorian-era wonderland that was the dominion of the town’s resident engineer, Kim’s best friend Marianne Teslagrade. The heavyset brunette lumbered her way through the main door and down the spiral staircase to the inventor’s quaint workshop, nodding at the intricacies her friend put into every minute detail. From the steam whistles, to the motorized gears, to the wallpapers of 1870s styled factories all colored a murky brown and maroon, Marianne built the walls to suit her style, and boy did she ever. The one thing she lacked however, was adjusting the shop floor’s door frame. With a small oomph, the blubbery drummer got herself wedged perfectly within the wooden molding, her bloated gut bulging outwards into the lab.</p><p><br/>
“I tell her every time I come over here,” Kim winced with a moan, trying desperately to wriggle herself free, “’Marianne you gotta widen the doors here. Place is far too cramped for a big girl like me, how else can you expect a beautiful body like mine to come down to give ya a hearty hello?’ But noooo, she’s a <em>hnngh</em> tinkerer at heart and as much as I love her for that, she tends to tunnel vision a lot. Girl can make a matter transporter and a mechanized butler but heaven forbid she takes two minutes to builder a wider ugh door. And one day she’s going to have to <em>uumph</em> learn that between this door and my body that my-OOP!”</p><p><br/>
With a thunderous crash, Kim plopped out of the door after wriggling her heavy body against the splintered barrier that shackled her so., causing several small tools on top of Marianne’s work bench to shoot skyward only to fall right back down onto the wood moments later. However it was her momentum on top of her bulk that flung her forward and slammed onto the cold steel floor of the workshop belly first. If there was one consolation in all of this, it was the extra padding Kim was packing heavily cushioned the impact, like falling headfirst into a beanbag chair made of gelatin. Soft, doughy, and incredibly comfortable, that’s how Kim liked it.</p><p><br/>
“My fat ass is gonna win…” muffled the weary woman, as she attempted to heave her ample physique off the ground. Placing a doughy arm on each side of her, Kim proceeded to attempt to lift her nearly four-hundred-pound body off the ground and amidst some struggling, proved victorious after several minutes of plopping back down onto the ground. “Doesn’t get any easier <em>hoo</em>” whined Kim, well aware her struggles were her own fault. Her weight had only increased since university, and while she reveled in her bulk, she was well aware of the issues it would cause, even if she does take care of her health. Dusting herself off, she noticed the work bench, the scattered tools, an array of cogs, and one sleeping inventor dozing off onto the plywood below. Marianne was sound asleep after what seemed to be a long night of tinkering, drool pouring from her mouth as her pudgy face molded itself into the edges of the table. Kim walked up to the bench and stared at her from the other side, placing her fists at her meaty hips as she watched from afar.</p><p><br/>
“Man, girl must’ve tuckered herself out again. Marianne really needs to start working on that sleep schedule of hers.” The bountiful brunette giggled aside as she continued to gaze at her cutesy friend galivanting the realm of dreams. “She seems so peaceful like that.” And as if on cue, Kim’s cute smile turned to a cunning smirk as her fists unclenched as she began to grip her ample love handles. Each hand was engulfed in rolls of soft fat as if she were kneading dough, as Kim slowly hiked her arms upward, heaving her belly higher and higher. Slowly lumbering closer to the bench, an ominous shadow poured over the wooden counter, and it was only a matter of time. Soon after, Kim let go of her stomach and let gravity do the rest, letting the oversized belly slam into the desk with a tremendous bang. The noise rang through the workshop as table itself began to give way, splintering slightly before immediately giving up soon after and splitting in two. The other half of the desk sprang upwards, knocking Marianne clean in the jaw, jolting the inventor awake in a state of shock.</p><p><br/>
“Who? What? Where? <strong>EEP!</strong>” The inventor looked around in all directions, seeing scattered tools, gears, and a pocket watch all floating in the air and with great diligence, she snagged each of them with ease, having them rest atop her bosom before searching for another place to store the dislocated items. Kim, however, was ecstatic.</p><p><br/>
“And the table split in half! A new record!” Kim cried in absolute joy, giving her belly a hearty slap in a congratulatory matter.</p><p><br/>
“So what you’re saying is that you’re paying me for a new table, right Kim?”</p><p><br/>
“…that I wish I knew who was responsible for so I can give them a piece of my mind. Oh when I get my hand on that rapscallion…” Marianne rolled her eyes, visibly unhappy about being thrusted awake by Kim’s attempt to make desk shattering an Olympic sport.</p><p><br/>
“So, any reason why you barged in here unannounced?” Marianne yawned.</p><p><br/>
“Like I need a reason to see my best friend? Come on now Marianne y-yeesh you look terrible!” Kim was immediately distracted by just how worse for wear Marianne looked. She seemed perfectly fine while at rest but once she was up the tinkerer looked like something out of a horror movie. Blonde hair messy with scattered strands everywhere, bags under her eyes that were so black they looked painted on, and even those bags had bags. Her eyes seemed bloodshot with her pupils seemingly out of alignment with her crosshair irises, though that might be Kim’s mind playing tricks on her.</p><p><br/>
“Kim, I’ve been up the last three days non-stop i-inventing I think?” It was the uncertainty that befuddled the brunette. She thinks she was inventing?</p><p><br/>
“What do you mean ‘you think?’”</p><p><br/>
“Well to be honest I haven’t slept in over 80 hours, haven’t showered in a week, and then as I was messing around with some tools everything just went dark.”</p><p><br/>
“So you passed out while gadgeteering again. Marianne, you need to ease up on the inventing pedal. You’ve got your whole life ahead of you, no need to burn yourself out so soon.” While her words were certainly respectful and caring, Kim’s plea fell on deaf ears, as Marianne made her way over to where she put that pocket watch, hips swaying ever so wildly in the process due to her wide frame.</p><p><br/>
“Kim, I’ve told you before, I’m an inventor, it’s what I love doing. I want to leave something here long after I’m gone. I want to add something to this world because we only have one life and who knows how much time we truly have left?”</p><p><br/>
“Way to get all existential on me Marianne,” Kim stated semi-sarcastically. Kim was always a “go with the flow” type of woman. If things happen they happen, but she can admit she respects Marianne for her dedication, and should she ever get her own drum set, Kim would be more than likely in the same position as her good friend. “Like that watch over there?”</p><p><br/>
“Yeah like this, huh?” Marianne stared at the trinket in slight confusion.</p><p><br/>
“Huh?”</p><p><br/>
“Kim, I, I don’t know if I even made this.”</p><p><br/>
“What do you mean, it has ‘you’ written all over it.” Kim was right. From the gears, gold accents, to even showing the inner mechanisms of the watch beneath the hands, the watch was steampunkian in design. A Marianne Teslagrade staple.</p><p><br/>
“Really? Because truth be told I don’t remember much of anything these last couple of days. Just taking some tools and then nothing until someone decided to knock a bench into my jaw…” Marianne said with a twinge of bitterness, causing Kim to chuckle sheepishly in guilt.</p><p><br/>
“Look I’m sorry okay? But anyways, with you up now maybe you can help me with something.”</p><p><br/>
“Help? With what?”</p><p><br/>
“Well, you see, had my monthly visit with the doctor the other day. Only way she said I can keep bulking up like this is if I have these checkups to ensure I’m in good health, and well, for the first time in like, forever, she…” Kim trailed off, muttering the last bit under her breath.</p><p><br/>
“She what Kim?”</p><p><br/>
<em>shesaidIwasoutofshape.</em>
</p><p>“Speak up Kim, I can’t hear you.”</p><p><br/>
“Fine, she said I was out of shape.”</p><p><br/>
“You? Out of shape? <em>Nooo…</em>” The sarcasm was loud and obvious in Marianne’s voice. Kim was always a big woman for as long as Marianne knew her, but she knew her friend had been “ballooning” a bit in terms of weight over the past year or two.</p><p><br/>
“Hey, you have two triple pounders at Grillers, realize you have an appointment in ten minutes, race your nearly 400 pound butt to the doctor’s office and not be winded and drenched in sweat like a greased hog.” Kim whined, poorly trying to justify the doctor’s totally incorrect assumptions. “Besides, just look at these guns, peak performance right here.” Kim tried flexing her arms to feign the illusion of a muscular build but ultimately let out a puff of air and thus the muscles sagged downward into plush arm fat, her stomach bulging out a bit more too. Kim was not doing herself any favors here.</p><p><br/>
“Peak performance indeed.” The inventor giggled.</p><p><br/>
“You want me to point out your pudgy tummy or your thunder thighs Marianne? Your call.” Kim coldly replied, sending a jolt clean through Marianne’s spine. Kim was a behemoth to be sure, but Marianne was slowly creeping up herself in terms of weight. Most of it going towards her hips and thighs yes, but she had been building a bit of belly since first meeting Kim nearly five years ago.</p><p><br/>
“Okay fine, I’ll stop,” Marianne pleaded, not in the mood for any more teasing. “But what do you need me for?”</p><p><br/>
“You see,” Kim said, fishing around her denim shorts that were far too small to properly cover her butt, ultimately pulling out a small piece of paper, “doc said I need someone to sign off on this, saying I can run a decent distance like say, from the basement of a house to the street, in under two minutes, thus proving I am in good health.”</p><p><br/>
“That seems, questionable.”</p><p><br/>
“Look, it’s either this or I’m forced onto a diet and you know me and diets don’t mix.”</p><p><br/>
“So where do I fit in this equation exactly?”</p><p> </p><p><br/>
“You sign the paperwork, I bring it into the office, doc clears me, we celebrate with all you can eat at Annabelle’s. Easy.” The irony of that was not lost on Marianne.</p><p><br/>
“You know I’m not signing anything without, you know, you actually running.”</p><p><br/>
“<em>Maaaaaaaaannn</em>, first the doc and now you? It's like no one trusts me to be honest about exercise around here.” Marianne just blankly stared at Kim, crossing her arms in a stern, yet unamused pose. “Fine, main thing is just give me that watch.” Kim requested pointing towards the trinket in her friend’s hand.</p><p>“Oh I get it, because it tells time, but why can’t you use your watch, or a phone even?”</p><p><br/>
“First of all, I left my watch at home, second uhh…”</p><p><br/>
“You left your phone in your back pocket and can’t reach it, right?”</p><p><br/>
“Look I can do without the ‘make the butterball look like a hypocrite schtick’ aight? Just gimme the watch okay?”</p><p><br/>
“Fine, but be careful with it.” With that Marianne passed the watch over to Kim, trying her best to describe the features for something she didn’t even know if she truly made or not.</p><p><br/>
“And I guess this button is the stopwatch feature?”</p><p><br/>
“Yeah, but again, be careful.”</p><p><br/>
“Got it, alright, wish me luck!” With that, Kim clicked the stopwatch button and began to walk, er, waddle, out of the shop and towards the street. One thing she or Marianne failed to notice however, was once the button was pressed, a faint blue shockwave radiated outward from the watch, seemingly stretching outward across the whole planet, but it likely was just a cosmetic feature. After squeezing through the door, again, Kim moaned in agony, realizing she had to travel up the spiral staircase that was much easier to climb down than up. “My, <strong>god</strong>!!! <em>haah</em> Exercise <em>hoo</em> is not meant to wheeze be this excruciating <em>hmmph!</em>” After many trials and turbulations, Kim made it outside to only look down at the watch and shout in frustration.</p><p><br/>
“<strong>AAAUUUGH!</strong> Really?!? Three minutes?!? Okay Kim, relax, think…” There was no mincing it, Kim took a good minute longer than she was supposed to, and the obese woman not only was drenched in sweat, but grasping at straws as to how to justify this.</p><p><br/>
“Okay, I can cut about thirty seconds off because of that darn door frame, and then another minute of just complaining instead of actually running, maybe. That’ll get me under two, so all I need to do is reset the watch, clock in at 1:50, show it to Marianne, and boom, no diets for me!” With that Kim pushed the button and reset the clock, looking over at the birds in the sky and the cars in the street.</p><p><br/>
“All right, redemption here I go!” With that she pressed down on the button again, with another shockwave emanating from the watch, and began to watch the clock tick down. Mildly bored she looked out in front of her to pass the time. “Wow they’re right, time really does seem to go slower when you’re staring at it. I wonder how birds manage to just keep flying without worrying about what time it, wha?” At that moment it hit Kim, the pigeons roaming the skies weren’t moving, their wings just frozen in midair. Cars on the street were seemingly unable to move, the sprinklers of neighboring houses were still, water droplets frozen in place. “Wha? What the? What is even happening?” Kim poked at a pigeon that was flying low and after the prod the bird, it plummeted straight down to the ground. “Uhhh...it was like that when I got here…” Kim timidly replied realizing she knocked the avian fowl out of the sky, before looking down at the watch, realizing it was at about 1:45. “Oop! Better press it!” With that Kim once again pressed the button and grinned in pride.</p><p><br/>
“1:50, perfect, now to show it to Marianne and I-” Kim heard the sound of a horn and looked to the street. The once stationary cars were now moving again, sprinklers flowing with water, the birds soaring in the skies above, the pigeon she swatted down bursting into flames. “Wait a minute…does this thing?” Kim pushed down on the watch while looking at the road, this time noticing the shockwave and how everything around her had stopped still. With this she pushed down on it again and suddenly everything was back to normal. The realization dawned on Kim like free milkshakes proving profitable for returning customers. “That girl made a stopwatch that literally stops time! Think of the possibilities with this and, oop! 1:59, just in time too, better show this to Marianne, she’ll get a kick out of this!” With that Kim raced down to find Marianne as swiftly as her massive body would let her, completely ignoring the fact that this was the third time she’d have to run through the stairs and that blasted door, eager to share this earth shattering revelation to the tubby tinkerer.</p><p><br/>
“Marianne! Mari-god this is the third time I’ve gotta do this. Marianne!” Kim shouted while descending the spiral stairs, once again racing back and forth with her bulk rubbing against her like sandpaper. “Marian-oomph!” Instead of getting wedged into the door frame, this time the massive lass just went right through though fell flat on her stomach for the second time not expecting the immediate release. From the cold tile Marianne heard her friend mutter, “Domph thoo mind githin me a thand?” And with a heave and a ho, the engineer hoisted up her pal, soaking in moisture and incredibly winded.</p><p><br/>
“Kim? It’s only been thirty seconds, don’t tell me you’re already out of breath. You haven’t even left the lab yet!”</p><p><br/>
“Ah but that’s where you’re wrong, come with me.” The duo went back up the stairs and towards the street, Kim once again whining about how needlessly long the staircase was, this time with Marianne as company. As they reached the outside and saw the scenery, that’s when Marianne proposed a question.</p><p>“So why are we out here exactly?”</p><p><br/>
“See this timer Marianne?”</p><p><br/>
“Yeah, 1 minute and 59 seconds. What of it?”</p><p><br/>
“Watch the road and that car for a second.” The blonde locked her eyes on a crimson sedan as Kim once again pushed down on the watch, sending yet another shockwave throughout the area. And just like before, the entire world came to a complete standstill. Though Kim noticed something she hadn’t expected herself, Marianne was frozen as well! Realizing she needed a non-time locked audience she immediately pressed the button again to restart the world.<br/>
“Uhh actually, press it down with me, I want to test something.” Confused, Marianne kept her eyes on a new car, this time a neon green SUV that was grossly offensive to the eyes and the duo pushed down on the button. This time Marianne joined Kim in being the only entities still moving in a world gone still, and then the blonde looked back to the road. Marianne noticed very well that out of nowhere the vehicle just stopped moving, yet showing no sign the driver pumped the brakes. Startled and scared, the inventor began spitting out gibberish in confusion before Kim reached out towards her friend’s face and tilted her head to the sky, once again and a stray pigeon locked into place. Marianne poked at the still bird and, as was the case with Kim prior, shot straight towards the ground at record speed.</p><p><br/>
“I…wha…how?”</p><p><br/>
“Marianne, you’ve managed to invent a watch that can stop time in its tracks. Do you realize what this means?”</p><p><br/>
“I can make everything and not have to worry about time ever again!” The inventor realized the golden opportunity that was presented to her. A proposition so absurd it shouldn’t even be real, but breaking reality just seemed to be a normal thing to Marianne and Kim. After all, they dealt with teleportation gates, sand submarines, and even inverted gravity, but stopping the flow of space and time was a step beyond even their absurdity.</p><p><br/>
“I was gonna say clean out any buffet in record time and that you can finally get some good sleep but that works too I guess.”</p><p><br/>
“Well what are we waiting for Kim? Let’s go, full steam ahead!” With a skip in her step and eyes glimmering with excitement, the tinkerer scurried back to her shop, the gears in her brain working overtime with the fortunes placed in front of her. Kim bellowed in frustration as this was the fifth time she’s had to hike her butt up and down those stairs to Marianne’s basement laboratory, whining on the prospects that her skintight shorts might just actually fit her normally when this was all set and done.</p><p><br/>
“Oh wait, we should probably unpause reality first.” The pair pressed the button once again, and the world resumed its daily functions. Except for that pigeon, which once again burst into flames.</p><p><br/>
As the two returned to the workshop, an exuberant Marianne spewed an endless stream of new Tinkertoys she now had the time to make while a sweat drenched Kim just spent the entire time moaning over how many times she needlessly had to go up and down those cursed treads to hell at this point, though at least she was able to squeeze through the workshop door with no problem this go around. Still, the day was young and ripe for tinkering, and now thanks to this super stopwatch, it was now infinite.</p><p><br/>
“Okay! Now let’s see, ooh!” Marianne, bright eyed and mind racing, tilted her top hat towards her brow as she scavenged for parts. “This ion fluctuator could be useful in making steam powered hoverbikes, and these diode stabilizers for a hammerspace briefcase, and these rifts can be handy for-“</p><p><br/>
“Woah woah, slow down there champ,” the pudgy drummer remarked. “You have an endless amount of time now to do anything, so why not just take it easy for today? After all, you are running on barely any sleep.”</p><p><br/>
“Kim you don’t understand, every second I’m not tinkering is an idea being wasted, future recognition being ignored. Time waits for no woman, and I don’t plan on waiting!”</p><p><br/>
“Then can we at least get a bite to eat first? Feels like I ran a marathon today.”</p><p><br/>
“We can eat later, we have Tinkertoys to create! Now pass me that screwdriver and let’s get to work!”</p><p><br/>
“Uhh Marianne? The watch?” In her fervent exuberance the inventor had forgotten why she was able to do all of this in the first place. The time bending pocket watch that she made in her sleep deprived state. Blushing a bit and taking a hand to the back of her head, she sheepishly snagged the watch from Kim’s doughy digits and the two of them pressed down on the trigger, once again sending time to a full stop. With all the time to waste, they did the exact opposite, and started creating like there was no tomorrow.</p><p><br/>
Marianne and Kim worked for what felt like weeks, even if taking the occasional pauses in stopping time for snack breaks and rest into consideration, only spanned a few hours to the rest of the world. Steam was spewing out of the lab and through the whistle-like chimney adorning the apex of the Victorian abode. Gears were turning, waltz music played gracefully on the gramophone the tinkerer kept in the background and gadgets were being pumped out left and right, each with the prospect that they’d be cherished by generations to come. Nearly her entire face was coated in oil and dirt by the time Marianne was ready to call it a day, and the fruits of her labor were well on display.</p><p><br/>
“So let’s see…” she took out a piece of paper she had scrawled on to jot down proposed Tinkertoys, a blueprint for self-generating cake dispenser was on the other side. “Hoverbikes? Check. Time proof suits so that way if we have them on we’re immune to the watch’s effects even if we don’t press the button? Check.” Marianne looked over at the custom built suits, proud of her abilities. Takes a lot to bend the laws of space time twice in a single day after all. “Conveyor belt that carries food from the fridge to the consumer wha?” As she looked beyond the hoverbikes and briefcase, along with the dignified robot butler with a top hat, monocle, and fancy mustache, she noticed one of her inventions was scribbled out and replaced in crayon with what appeared to be Kim’s handwriting. She peered beyond the paper and saw the belt with a bowl of triple chocolate ice cream heading right for the drummer’s maw.</p><p><br/>
“Check!” Said a satisfied Kim, easily downing the frozen confection in a matter of seconds. “And delicious too!” Licking her lips and patting her stuffed belly, Kim smiled in satisfaction for a Tinkertoy well built. The inventor rolled her eyes and let loose a minor groan, well aware that her gluttonous friend wasn’t going to let her be the only one having fun with this endless free time.</p><p><br/>
“Anyway, black hole generator that dispenses frozen yogurt in a cup?” Marianne looked over at the event horizon of a miniature black hole, granted she made sure in the prints that the singularity doesn’t rip apart the fabric of the universe, as the spatial entity soon after pumped out a small cup of chocolate fro-yo. She took a spoon and pierced the treat before opening her mouth to take a bite. The chilling sensation tantalized her taste buds, as delectable as anticipated. “Mmmm…check.”</p><p><br/>
“You got on my case for the conveyor belt, but making a black hole that creates fro-yo is okay huh?” Kim said sarcastically while laying against the wall; her padding made the space rather comfortable.</p><p><br/>
“Listen, tinkering takes a lot of time, so if I can cut down on having to stop to snag something from the fridge I’d like that.”</p><p><br/>
“The girl who made a time pausing watch is concerned about saving time; that’s a new one.” The bountiful brunette soon heaved herself up and waddled towards Marianne. “And for fro-yo too? Looks like this tubby tummy isn’t going anywhere.” Kim gripped a bit of Marianne’s pudgy stomach, causing the inventor to redden in the face with fiery intensity. She slapped Kim in the face and with the impact the playful woman receded her hands.</p><p><br/>
“Stop that! You know I’m still…uncertain about being big.”</p><p><br/>
“Hey, as the resident ‘big girl’ here, I call it how I see it. Anyways, sorry about pushing your buttons.”</p><p><br/>
“<em>Hmmph.</em>” Marianne pouted, still sour over Kim’s mischief.</p><p><br/>
“So speaking of Tinkertoys, you didn’t give the watch a number.”</p><p><br/>
“Oh right, uhh…Tinkertoy No. umm….1031?”</p><p><br/>
“1031? There’s no way you’re up to that many.”</p><p><br/>
“Some of them aren’t in order, so I sometimes go with whatever number seems right without overlapping.”</p><p><br/>
“And 1031 is symbolic how?”</p><p><br/>
“Don’t know, just feels right.”</p><p><br/>
“Fine by me.” Shrugged a disinterested Kim, grabbing a chocolate bar off the conveyor belt and taking a large bite out of it. “<em>Suh, ish it muh turn wif the waf</em>?”</p><p><br/>
“Wha?”</p><p><br/>
“Thy said,” the voracious woman gulped down the foodstuffs in her cheeks before continuing, “is it my turn with the watch?”</p><p><br/>
“I, I suppose so, but for what?”</p><p><br/>
“Oh I had something in mind.” With a glimmer in her glasses, devious Kim snickered as they retreated from the workshop to Kim’s SUV with her in the driver’s seat and a wrong to be made right. Several minutes of traveling later Kim pulled up into a parking lot swarming with other vehicles. Outside the sounds of shouting exuberance, crashing water, and crying toddlers filled the air. As the exited the van, Kim squeezed out with an aura of determination radiating across her face while Marianne continued to look on absolutely puzzled.</p><p><br/>
“Splash Storm Water Park?” a curious Marianne pondered while reading the giant sign adorning the entrance face. A water park in the middle of autumn seemed like an odd choice for an activity, even for Kim. “We had all summer to go here, why now?”<br/>
“Yeah about that…” Kim pulled her arms back as they caressed the back rolls of her neck in a prideful, yet shameful matter.</p><p><br/>
“Kim, what are you hiding from me?” The gadgeteer leered over at her pudgy partner, wondering what secrets she was hiding.</p><p><br/>
“So, remember when I told you about going to Splash Storm last year and you were busy working on your steampunk city simulation? You see…”</p><p><br/>
<em>
    <strong>***</strong>
  </em>
</p><p><br/>
“L-look ma’am, I-I’m sorry but I’m going to have to ask you to please exit the line.”</p><p><br/>
“Listen here buddy, that sign right there says the only people that shouldn’t ride are those with health conditions or pregnant, and despite what you may think, I am neither of those!” Kim angrily pointed at the sign in question right atop the tube-like slope surging with water. <em>Enter the Cyclone: Splash Storm’s Biggest, Baddest, and Fastest Slide Ever</em>, the sign read, with a bunch of legal nonsense plastered beneath it. Despite it being the last day of seasonal operation, Splash Storm decided to send it off in style with a sneak preview of their latest attraction that had been under construction during the summer. Kim was keeping up with news about it the entire time it was under wraps. A new water slide that her name written all over it, and after winning a ticket to be one of the first to ride the behemoth in a radio contest, it was something she wasn’t going to pass her by. And that went double for the feeble employee keeping her from rushing through the tubes at a staggering 50 mph. The attendant himself was meek, a frail, black-haired young man dressed in a blue swimsuit and a painfully average build, both shorter, and far smaller than the nearly 400 pound woman staring him down.</p><p><br/>
“I can take your word on it but, but you see, you…”</p><p><br/>
“I what?” Kim’s fury went into a fever pitch. This kid was giving her the wrap around and holding up the line for everyone else. To him it was the opposite: some loud-mouth glutton stalling for time and throwing him under the bus.</p><p><br/>
“It’s just that…”</p><p><br/>
“Out with it!”</p><p><br/>
“I, well, you see, you’re, uhh..” Kim was done waiting, and considering the ruckus of annoyed chanting in the crowd sprawling behind her with no end in sight, so were they.</p><p><br/>
“Well if you’re just gonna stammer like a putz and not give me a reason why I can’t ride, then I’m just going to go in and-” Fat. Kim was far too fat. The gentleman didn’t have the guts to spit it out in front of her face, but Kim’s, “horizontally gifted form” got cleanly wedged two tubes in. Her belly striking the top of the cylindrical part and her padded rear end firmly wedged at the bottom, with high pressure water constantly splashing up her butt. A ticklish sensation, for a few seconds before the ramped up speed started to sting. The resulting chaos not only forced the ride to close early, and a crowd of justifiably pissed off patrons to disperse as well eager for a refund, but Kim herself was banned from the water park for a year. A surprisingly light sentence for someone who nearly permanently shut down a ride that hadn’t even officially opened.</p><p>
  <em>
    <strong>***</strong>
  </em>
</p><p><br/>
“…to think it took the fire department 5 hours to get me out of there, and I didn’t even get to see the corkscrew, let alone the zero gravity wave section…”</p><p><br/>
“Kim…did it not dawn on you at all that you might have been a bit too big? Like, did you even size yourself up to it?” Marianne was more stunned than surprised. She was used to Kim getting caught in tight places, but usually the rotund drummer has the foresight to avoid narrow spaces if she could.</p><p><br/>
“The sign didn’t say anything about fat people Marianne, for all intents and purposes I was allowed to ride. Guess that loophole is why it was only a year.”</p><p><br/>
“So how did they get you out of there?”</p><p><br/>
“Blowtorch to tear open the tubes and some grease to slide me out. They tried a saw, but seeing how they would cut me open like a big ol’ cake, you can see why that wouldn’t work.”</p><p><br/>
“And we’re here now why?”</p><p><br/>
“Because my yearlong ban just ended yesterday and I’m going to ride the Cyclone if it kills me.” Marianne shook her head as Kim scoffed at the motion. The ride’s still the same size as it was a year ago, Kim however had, to put it lightly, put on a few pounds since then. As if well aware of her added bulk she playfully tapped her belly before entering the front gate. “Oh that’s right, swimsuits!”</p><p><br/>
“Like I expected to go to a water park in the middle of October,” the inventor unamusingly remarked, “besides, what is it with you and getting banned from places involving water anyway?”</p><p>“They jelly of the belly, what can I say?” Marianne belted a loud groan in mild disgust while Kim just smugly sat there with a dopey grin on her face. “I knew you wouldn’t bring yours, so I made sure to bring one for you!”</p><p><br/>
“If it’s that cog strap again Kim I swear…” Kim looked over into her bag and saw the two piece with the aforementioned gear shaped bra top that was incredibly skimpy in design and shoved it into the very bottom of the bag. Marianne noticed and said nothing. Just pure annoyance painted her face, only to break the silence moments later. “I’ll watch then.” As the two entered the park with their tickets in tow, they sized up the aforementioned Cyclone. 80 feet tall, two corkscrew sections, one of which was inverted, two open areas for the world to see screaming customers surge down the ride like a downpour, and the renowned zero gravity loop where a body feels lighter than air. It was beast ready to battle, and Kim was more than eager to accept. A battle a year in the making, much to the disdain of the humble employees of Splash Storm; most notably of the park’s owner.</p><p><br/>
“Hello and welcome to…oh great, it’s been a year already?” The sharp switch in emotions bounced off the gruffness in his voice. A chiseled, older gentleman of a stocky build more toned than Kim’s frame with a big burly gray mustache that did a mediocre job at hiding his balding scalp. However what really radiated an intimidating aura was the bushy eyebrows perched atop his pupils. Thicker than erasers and blacker than the night sky, a furrowed brow was enough to send shivers down even the sturdiest of spines. Barry Thompson read the name on his badge, an owner who enjoyed running a business rather than the amusement aspects of the park. The same man that led to Kim’s ban and rage when the courts ruled a shorter sentence thanks to Kim’s astute sign reading, once again face to face with the rebel. “To think I was this close to a season without having to put up with your hide…”</p><p><br/>
“Well what can I say? I’m the life of the party.” Kim boasted, well aware who she was dealing with and yet did not care in the slightest. Marianne shied away slightly to avoid the confrontation yet was impressed how Kim showed no fear in her eyes, no matter how foolish.</p><p><br/>
“Yes, <em>a party crasher all right,</em>” Thompson muttered under his breath, his mustache nudging up and down with his lip movement, “I’d greatly appreciate it if you didn’t go and actually decommissioned an attraction with that…thing.” He pointed to Kim’s gut, well aware that it had only gotten larger in the year’s absence.</p><p><br/>
“Sure thing old man, just hope you made that Cyclone more, ‘accommodating’” With a wink she waddled away from the owner and towards the Cyclone, making sure her large stomach swayed back and forth ever so playfully. Marianne put herself into high gear seeing Kim getting further and further away, though her movement was a bit more labored with her thighs constantly smacking into each other. Eventually the two made it to the towering titan of steel and pressurized water, still as impressive as ever, Kim thought to herself. The local attendant was on break and the line was barren, leaving little delay for the eager rider to get her fill, that was until she noticed something rather disappointing.</p><p><br/>
“And they still haven’t made this bigger. Gee you think a customer getting her belly stuck in this thing would get them to, I don’t know, improve it? Geh…”</p><p><br/>
“Well to be fair, they did update it…” Marianne pointed to the sign, now with a sticker which featured a red circle and stripe going over an obese human body that seemed oddly like Kim’s. Disappointed but not deterred, Kim drummed up her idea, ready to put it into action.</p><p><br/>
“Say Marianne, you wouldn’t happen to have your tools around now would you?”</p><p><br/>
“I mean yes I always carry them with me but I don’t see how this applies to your current predicament.”</p><p><br/>
“Got that watch too?”</p><p><br/>
“Yes but again I fail to comprehend how these things help you…ride…the…no.” The gears in Marianne’s head were turning and soon enough they clicked, setting of the steam whistles signaling a finished product. Kim’s goal was simple, pause time, build up a bigger Cyclone, and ride that thing just as planned. “No no no Kim, I am not going to-”</p><p><br/>
“Don’t worry I got it, after all I learned from the best.”</p><p><br/>
“Flattery will get you nowhere Kim, except this one time. Ready?” The duo pressed the watch once more and the park of surf and surging tides came to a complete stop. Droplets of water lay frozen in the air as if it were ice, the screams of thrill seekers paused mid-shriek. It was, for lack of a better word, unsettling, granted Kim didn’t care. Time was of the essence, metaphorically anyway.</p><p><br/>
“Okay, now, uhh, how does one, expand this thingy and uhh, that, thingy and…” Having taken apart one tube, Kim immediately found her stuck on how to widen the metal to fit her bulk. Taking things apart was easy, building them however was Marianne’s specialty. “Uhh, can I get a hand here?”</p><p><br/>
“Now where would you be without me Kim?” Grabbing a wrench out of her top hat, Marianne walked over to aide her struggling friend, using some spare parts to whip up a small steam based steel modifier.<br/>
“Probably with the old drum stuck in there again, knowing my luck.” With a whir, turning cogs, and flaring whistles, steam poured out of the gadget and began warping the tubes to become wider and sturdier, without sacrificing the speed of rushing down the heavy metal. It went on for hours with Marianne using the modifier to make each tube bigger for Kim while the doughy drummer tore open the next tube ready for the tinkerer to work her magic. Tiring but well worth the wait, the bigger and better Cyclone was ready to go, and in record time too. More than eager to give it a whirl, Kim stomped her foot to the ground in a sumo-like stance before charging gut first into the opening tube.<br/>
“Aw baby I’ve waited a whole year for this. Here we <em>gooooooooooooo</em>!”</p><p><br/>
“Uhh Kim, I think we should probably, you know…”</p><p><br/>
“<em>-oooooooooooooo-</em>ow ow ow ow <strong>OW</strong>!” In her bullheadedness Kim forgot one key detail about stopping time. The water went with it, so instead of barreling through the tubes being thrust along by the gushing liquid, she was now bouncing up and down the larger hunks of metal with her increasing speed causing the steel to heat up to uncomfortable levels. It was a slight stinging at first, which swiftly turned into.</p><p><br/>
“This! Thing! Is! Burning! My! Bu-bu-bu-butt!” As she entered the first open section of the Cyclone, the bouncing turned to rolling as Kim’s round body continued down the track like a bowling ball. Then came the bouncing of the next tube section, then the corkscrew, then the zero gravity section which was more of an instant drop thanks to the lack of water. A corkscrew later and soon Kim found herself about eight feet in the air about to dive belly first into the ending pool.</p><p>“<strong>YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!</strong>” The nearly four hundred pound woman was getting the ride of her life after all, now if only it went as planned.</p><p><br/>
<em>SPLAT!</em>
</p><p><br/>
With a thud her gut crashed into the pool, which was more the equivalent of a sidewalk thanks to no kinetic energy to disperse the water with time stopped. Fortunately her added padding mitigated the impact slightly. “<em>Owwwwww</em>…water isn’t meant to work that way.”</p><p><br/>
“It does when time’s paused.” Marianne chimed in. “There was no time to pump the water through the slide and even then water still has a velocity which is zero without the flow of time progressing. So effectively you just made a very thrilling torture chamber, fascinating.” The inventor took out a notebook from her back pocket and started to jot down her discoveries. Breaking the laws of special relativity was not something that happens every day.</p><p><br/>
“Okay now if you’re done Einsteining it up, can you reset the clock please?</p><p>”<br/>
“Prefer Vernian but all right.” With a press of the button the flow of time was restored and all was well. Except for Kim, who forgot she was still resting on a pool of water. With an immediate splash Kim sank down like a rock into the pool, causing a massive cannonball like dispersion of water. Marianne giggled the whole way through.</p><p><br/>
“Ohhh, so that’s how it would go…”</p><p><br/>
“Very funny…” a soaked, battered, and bottom burned Kim sarcastically quipped. This was meant to be her grandest ploy yet and only Marianne got something out of it. She puffed out a sigh, disappointed, but satisfied Marianne had a good time.</p><p><br/>
“Now let’s head back to the workshop. I just thought of some new Tinkertoys I want to make after all of this, and you could probably do with some bags of ice.”</p><p><br/>
“Appreciate it.” The two hopped back into the SUV with Marianne at the wheel, since Kim was nursing off her minor injuries. Taking a hand to her neck she let out a few pained whines every now and again, always next year she thought, and this time they’ll leave time like the water: flowing and operational.</p><p><br/>
Returning to the workshop and letting the clock burn for a bit, Kim and Marianne each spent their time accomplishing two different things: the inventor continuing to jot down every single idea into her head and knowing how short her attention span tends to be at times wondering which ones she’ll have to scrap to make room for the thousand other possible Tinkertoys to create, and the drummer soothing her rotund rump with ice and a tub of cold water.</p><p><br/>
“I have to ask you Kim, what was it like riding the Cyclone? Well worth the wait?” Marianne queried with a glimmer of snark in her voice.</p><p><br/>
“If by worth it you mean being pinballed around a hunk of scrap metal while my ass suffered third degree burns then, maybe. I don’t know, at least my drum and I were able to ride the thing at all without getting the boot,” remarked tired and sore Kim, squeezing her doughy belly as a means of consoling herself. “Still, can’t believe I have to wait another year to actually go on if for real. You think they’ll be mad we ‘improved’ their ride for them?”</p><p><br/>
“Kim, science is always about progress,” beaming with attitude and pointing a finger to the ceiling, Marianne boldly stated, “to turn your back on science is to turn your back to humanity’s evolution. Science is like a system of cogs, each one turning to move the other, until all the gears are in harmonious synchronicity, powering the machines that fuel our tomorrow an-” The blonde tinkerer’s glorious spiel was soundly interrupted by the audacious rumblings of Kim’s stomach which was in desperate need of nourishment.</p><p><br/>
“Hate to interrupt your power ballad Marianne, but the drum decided to steal the stage for a solo.” Kim chuckled patting her gut gently. “Besides, food will do us some good. Annabelle’s?”</p><p><br/>
“A bit early for dessert don’t you think?”</p><p><br/>
“Marianne, Marianne, Marianne…” Kim toyfully shook her head as she pulled out her phone. “You need to realize any time is dessert time if you try hard enough.” With that she pounded down on the device to go and place an order. “Yeah Annabelle? Yep it’s yours truly…uh huh…oh no, at least double my normal, with Marianne tonight. What’s that? No her place, just down the street. 30 minutes? Good with me, thanks!” Kim hung up the phone and attempted to stuff the thing back into her pant pocket, to which her pants might as well be shorts with how much they rode up her ample rear end, leaving the kneecaps to her trunk-like legs fully exposed.</p><p><br/>
“How much did you order?” Marianne nervously asked, well aware of her friend’s gluttonous appetite.</p><p><br/>
“Oh, enough.” The heavier of the two replied with a smirk. Kim hopped onto the couch outside the workshop halls and watched some television as Marianne continued toiling away in the lab whilst they waited for their order to arrive. Several ticks of the clock later and…</p><p><br/>
<em>DING</em>
</p><p><br/>
“Oop! Order’s here! I got it!” An eager Kim waddled her way out of the shop towards the front door upstairs, with Marianne staying behind in the workshop, cleaning off a spare workbench to make way for the confections Kim had ordered. A good ten minutes had passed since Kim headed off and yet she still hadn’t made her way downstairs. What happened to her, Marianne pondered in solitude. Her wonders would soon be answered however, when Kim barged in with several three foot high boxes and a dozen small platters of cookies.</p><p><br/>
“Don’t worry, got two more of these big boys to haul in.” Kim replied dropping of the massive containers onto the bench.</p><p><br/>
“Two more…Kim, what are these?” Marianne took off the box to reveal a massive seven tiered chocolate cake, lined with thick, heavy fudge icing, chewy cookie crunchies, and a large dab of whipped cream at the very top of the cake. “I..I…Kim!”</p><p><br/>
“Yo.” The blubbery brunette squeezed through the door frame, plopping the last two of the massive cakes next to their brothers. The workbench slightly creaked due to the weight of the desserts atop it, struggling to maintain its sturdiness.<br/>
“This is what you call enough?”</p><p><br/>
“Well, enough for you and me anyway.”</p><p><br/>
“Enough for-Kim! This is enough food for a party of twenty! There’s no way we’re finishing all of this in one night!” As if on cue, Kim snagged Marianne’s flustered hand and slapped it down onto the stopwatch with her own, pausing time yet again.</p><p><br/>
“Wanna bet?” Kim raised an eyebrow as a devilish glimmer radiated off her glasses, all capped off with a charming little smirk. The night was infinite with time stopped, so for all intents and purposes, Marianne was proven wrong.</p><p><br/>
“…I am going to regret this in the morning won’t I?” Marianne sighed, although licking her lips in anticipation. Her sweet tooth was strong, especially for chocolate cake.</p><p><br/>
“Oh come on, I’m sure most of it will go to your hips.”</p><p>“<em>Not. helping. in the slightest.</em>”</p><p>“<em>Lesh tahky, muh eafin</em>.” Kim haphazardly replied with a thick handful of cake firmly wedged in her mouth. Her cheeks were well puffed out stuffed with the sweet treat. Marianne sighed in defeat, as she took a fork and knife in order to sample it herself. What happened next was a sensation to behold, the delectable taste was far beyond anything Marianne had experienced before, like an assembly line of gears leading the way to powering an entire industrial city. The rich chocolate flavor, the crunchies tickling her tongue, the fudgy icing, it was all simply divine. So much so that she immediately dug into the cake for another slice.</p><p><br/>
“<em>Tuhd yew thih wuh guf</em>.” Said Kim with her mouth full yet again.</p><p><br/>
“<em>Thy cuhcur.</em>” Marianne cooed in agreement, as the two continued to slowly but sure down the towering treats ahead of them. What in reality took them a solid six hours of feasting and pauses in between, it will only have taken a few seconds once the flow of time was restored. And yet our brave heroines, having soundly defeated the terrifyingly tantalizing treats, lay sprawled out on the cold shop floor below, stuffed to the brim and, in Marianne’s case anyway, full of regret.</p><p><br/>
“Uuuuuuuggghhhhh…<em>hic</em>.” The inventor moaned in mild agony. “Told you I’d regret this Kim, I mean look at this!” Marianne winced as she gently prodded her pudgy stomach, bulging out substantially more after all the cookies and cake that were consumed. The mound of flesh lightly wobbled from the push as the paunch spilled over and reached up to her thighs, more pronounced than ever before. “You know I’ve been trying to take a few off and now it’s…I’m taking a bit too much from you.”</p><p><br/>
“Well for what it’s worth I think it looks cute on you.” Marianne groaned at Kim’s kind gesture. Of course the woman pushing four hundred pounds would find delight in added bulk. “And besides <em>urp</em>, the old drum’s better than ever!” Kim, acting on her musical instinct, took out the drum sticks she kept with her, emblazoned with a dark blue KS on each, and began striking them against her massive belly. The stuffed orb took kindly to the pounding wood, and each melodious mash from the drummer gave off a jazzy baseline that rivaled even the most seasoned of musicians. “Aw yeah, did you hear that bass? Best sound I’ve gotten from her to date!”</p><p><br/>
“Only you can seem to find joy in sheer hedonism Kim.”</p><p><br/>
“What can I say? I make this look good, sound good too.”</p><p><br/>
“Yeah but all this sugar’s going to keep me up all night and crash first thing in the morning. Maybe I should just pause time so I can make sure when I do pass out I’ll be able to get up with the sun. You have your suit on right?”</p><p><br/>
“Yeah yeah, a bit tight around the drum, but it’ll do. How’d you make this so quickly? And clear too?”</p><p><br/>
“A talented inventor always knows how to fit a client’s needs, and do it both quickly, and efficiently!” exclaimed Marianne with a renewed vigor, “Besides, it was simply a matter of taking the disrupted time particles and converting them into a fabric-like essence that was capable of resisting spatial disruptions and-”</p><p><br/>
“All right I got it, maybe. Anyways,” Kim struggled to heave herself upright, settling just to get to a seated position with her stuffed stomach jutting out ahead of her. “Just curious was all, food gets me thinking sometimes and I-<strong>ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ</strong>”</p><p>Marianne thought she’d crash from the pent up sugar by sunrise, Kim burned out in mere minutes. The hulking titan fell right back down to the ground with a resounding thud and snored loudly for a good minute for droning off to a silent slumber. Marianne figured it’d be best to leave her friend dozing in the comforts of the workshop while she’d tinker within her own bedroom. Taking a blanket from the guest room down the hall, she covered Kim in the comfy covering before retiring to her own quarters to tinker the night away before burning out come sunrise. Marianne left the watch on a workshop bench nearby, not needing it for any of the Tinkertoys she was planning, before turning the lights out and making her way to her bedroom.</p><p><br/>
Morning rose over Harper Bay with a sunrise so extravagant and colorful it lit the sky in a sea of crimson, orange, and pink as the light fluffy clouds above whisked freely around their canvas. A rested Kim fluttered her eyes open a good few hours after that, fully satisfied from her “power nap,” eager to tackle the day ahead. As she scoured around the workshop floor she saw no hide or hat of Marianne, likely up in her own room toiling away, Kim thought to herself. Still, I should thank her for the blanket, really darn comfy, she continued aside. Escaping the shop and shuffling up a small flight of stairs lead up to Marianne’s quarters, with a doorknob powered through gears as miniature zeppelins whizzed by. Kim gently opened the door to find Marianne sprawled out on the floor, drool pouring from her mouth as her top hat lied helplessly against her side. She called her own crash, and was well prepared for it. Still, in the meantime Kim wondered around the room, admiring the sheer attention to aesthetic. Wallpaper highlighting a steampunk city with cathedrals, billowing smokestacks, buildings swarming with gears, and a giant clock tower powered by tens of thousands of cogs: the perfect backdrop against a brass bed with a gear for a bedside and small desk next to it. Kim did not wish to disturb her, so she took the blanket off Marianne’s bed and placed it over the worn out inventor. Shuffling slowly downstairs she looked to her phone and found it to already be half past noon. The woman gasped, how dare she skip breakfast? A heavy lunch would be needed to make up for a lost meal, though she was a tad strapped for cash. Food isn’t cheap, and working in retail doesn’t really make bank. That and last night’s excursion set her back a bit. Swiping through ads on her phone, Kim’s eyes lit up the moment she saw it. Bob’s Buffet, one of her favorite all-you-can-eat places in town. Their fabled challenge, the Big Burger, was back for one day only, and that day was today. The goal was simple: devour a 2 foot wide by 2 feet tall burger in under an hour and the meal is free; if not then you pay, and pay dearly. Kim had tried valiantly in the past to tame this beast of a burger, but every time had come up just short, much to her own anguish. Her stomach soon rumbled, well aware it hadn’t been fed in a long while.</p><p><br/>
“Look I know you’re hungry,” Kim replied to her own gut, “but can’t really afford much until pay day tomorrow, and that Big Burger’s bested us every time so far. I can’t take the chance and come up short again.” Her stomach roared even louder than before, seemingly in protest.</p><p><br/>
“Now don’t you growl at me! You’re the one with the limits here, not moi.” It went on like that for three minutes with the obese brunette trading barbs for groans from her own belly. “I mean we only get an hour for that and the best we ever did was finish five minutes over. If only there was a way to actually finish in ti-“ Kim looked down at the workbench of which Marianne’s watch was set. With that Kim got a wonderfully awful idea. A grin spanning puffy cheek to puffy cheek adorned her visage as she swiped the trinket and made her way up the spiral staircase for the front door. “You know what? I got a good feeling we’re gonna make it this time.” And so the thieving drummer marched to her SUV and toward Bob’s Buffet, ready to conquer her latest foe.</p><p><br/>
A few hours later, Marianne woke from her slumber, mildly groggy from her sudden collapse after the sugar rush wore off. She dusted herself off the ground, propped on her hat and looked down on her desk to notice bits of scrap metal lying about. Another invention in the making, granted what it was even eluded Marianne. However Marianne’s attention soon turned to the blanket that was thrust upon her. She didn’t take it off her bed, so who did. “Ah, Kim must have left this for me,” the inventor grinned thinking about her friend’s generosity. “Probably should go down and thank her for it.” The curvaceous blonde entered the workshop to find no one inside. Curious as to why, she browsed around trying to find a clue of sorts only to notice that the watch on her workbench was missing, with a note laying in its stead. Marianne didn’t see the note, only aware of how the watch itself disappeared. Did she misplace it, misremember, did someone steal it? All these thoughts poured into her mind like a bucket overflowing with running water, and only after frantically panicking around for a short while did she recognize the paper on the bench. Taking a look at the pamphlet, she began to read what was written on the page.</p><p><br/>
<em>Hey Marianne, borrowing the watch for a bit, Bob brought the burger back and I want to settle the score. Granted it’ll likely be only a few minutes in reality considering the whole time stop mumbo jumbo. Really don’t know why I’m writing this anyway, likely wouldn’t even notice it was gone when I got back. So uhh…pretend you didn’t read this okay? -Kim</em>
</p><p><br/>
Thoughts of kindness turned dour as Marianne crumbed up the paper in anger. “Of all the-Kim!” The inventor looked down at her own watch to see it was only 1:30 PM. She had slept for at least 8 hours after dozing off at 4 this morning, so Kim’s time pausing antics likely started not too long ago. With a destination set, Marianne stormed off to chastise her friend, hopefully within time. “And this is why I kept my timeproof suit on, because I had a feeling she’d do this. Hoo boy…” As Marianne ran down the streets into town, a mild course of pain swelled in her body, constantly taking a beating from her thighs smashing into each other like cement blocks as her twenty inch hips violently swayed side to side with each forced stride. Minutes of whining over her thighs and pauses to catch her breath later, Marianne made it to Bob’s to see her thief at the scene of her newest crime: devouring a massive burger in front of motionless employees. Kim downed about 80% of the patty already, and as she closed her eyes to enjoy her next bite, a swing of the front doors broke her immersion with the sound of a dinging bell and a smacking of lumber.</p><p><br/>
“Kimberly Summers!” roared a furious Marianne.</p><p><br/>
“Yeah, kinda regretting writing that note now…” Kim sighed well aware she was cornered.</p><p><br/>
“I trusted you, and now you’re using my Tinkertoys, <em>to cheat?!?</em>”</p><p><br/>
“Hey now, it’s only cheating if you get caught.”</p><p>“And what is this?”</p><p><br/>
“…you’re not an employee, shut.”</p><p><br/>
“And that makes it okay, how?”’</p><p><br/>
“Look, I just wanted to get a free meal is all. Last night cost me an arm and a leg, so I figured, get the Big Burger, break a record, and call it a day. Drop the watch off afterwards, and no one would be the wiser.”<br/>
“Except you forgot I kept my suit on didn’t you?”</p><p><br/>
“Yeah not one of my brighter moments. Turned the brain off and let the drum do the thinking. Still, gotta hand it to this thing,” Kim smacked her belly in pride, “she’s holding up much better with the Big Burger than before. Training’s paid off.”<br/>
“Listen Kim, you unpause time, confess to these good people you were trying to rob them by cheating, give the watch back, and all is forgiven.”</p><p><br/>
“Marianne I’d love to, but kinda can’t afford this unless I eat it all within an hour, and according to that clock I still got another 15 minutes for…forever.” Kim pointed over to the timer on the wall, aptly paused with a decent amount of time left while not too much to avoid arousing suspicion.</p><p><br/>
“Kim, no, the watch, now!”</p><p><br/>
“Marianne please, I don’t wanna be resistant but if you leave me no choice,” Kim pushed her seat back and heaved her heavy body up from the cushion. In a means of intimidation, she slammed one foot to the ground and presented herself against her aggressor in a sumo-like stance. “You’re gonna have to go through all of this!”</p><p><br/>
“Gladly,” rushing up the behemoth of a woman at breakneck speed, Marianne frantically tried to swipe the watch away from Kim’s digits, except she forgot two things. Kim was taller, and much, much heavier. The tinier tinkerer kept rushing and flailing at Kim, only to be have to deal with the bountiful orb of a belly the latter was packing.</p><p><br/>
“You…for someone as bright as you, you didn’t really think this through now didn’t y-y-yo-<em>yopffhahahaha</em>!” Kim soon found herself bursting into a fit of uncontrollable laughter, thanks in part due to a certain someone stalling in order to lower her guard. Marianne knew she wasn’t going to beat Kim in a fair fight, so she used her knowledge of her best friend to go for the finisher: Kim’s flesh, while vast, was also incredibly ticklish. “Haha-hey! That’s cheating and you know hahahaha!” With the drummer incapacitated, Marianne used this window of opportunity to snag the watch out of Kim’s pudgy paws and pressed down on it, restarting the flow of time. All the while the employees overlooking Kim were baffled as to when someone else got in here, and why Kim was now standing upright instead of being firm in her seat. However with Marianne off her body, Kim got herself under control and lunged gut first into Marianne, forcing the two into a tumbling tussle.</p><p><br/>
“C’mon! Just let me finish that burger and be done with it!”</p><p><br/>
“Not a chance Kim! You can’t go messing with quantum mechanics like that, who knows how much more this watch can take before-HNNGGHH!” Kim grabbed hold of the watch as Marianne pulled back in defiance, the constant mashing and pulling at the watch caused time-shattering shockwaves to ripple throughout the brawl, only for one final massive wave pulsing at the end, now in a crimson flash instead of azure. The flashing went unnoticed by the two women, as soon after Kim sat victorious with the watch in her mitts, and Marianne pinned down under her gut.</p><p><br/>
“Told you this was a fight you couldn’t win Marianne,” Kim said with a gleam, “this drum is simply beyond compare! Now come on, we got a burger to wrap up.” With a click of the watch, nothing happened. No waves, no nothing. Kim, confused and a tad frustrated, pounded down more on the watch to no effect. “Come on! What’s wrong with this stupid thing?”</p><p><br/>
“Well what do you know? Your misuse broke it. Give it to me, maybe I can fix it.”</p><p><br/>
“Maybe!?” A reluctant Kim handed the trinket back over. “What do you mean, maybe?”</p><p><br/>
“Well I made this thing sleep deprived, not like I made blueprints to go look over.” However, the very moment Marianne tried to take a screwdriver and wrench to the watch, it broke in a fantastical burst of gears and scrap metal, bursting like fireworks and falling like confetti. “I-” The two ladies stood there, mouths agape, now forever trapped in a timeless limbo, with no way out.</p><p><br/>
“So, we scream in hysteria on 3?” Kim asked.</p><p><br/>
“Yep,” replied Marianne.</p><p><br/>
“Aight, 1, 2, 3. <em>AAIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!</em>”</p><p><br/>
“I got the pieces!” Screamed Marianne, frantically collecting every last piece of metal discarded by the fractured clock.</p><p><br/>
“I got the motivational support!” Shouted Kim, well aware she was contributing nothing to the situation.</p><p><br/>
“Just put this here, and that gear there, and, and…”</p><p><br/>
“Go Marianne! You can do it! GO GO <em>GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO</em>!!!” Despite the inventor’s best efforts and the drummer’s rallying cries, there was no salvaging the destroyed Tinkertoy. One frenzied press by Marianne shattered the watch once more, as the two left Bob’s defeated with metallic scraps on the glazed maroon tile and a burger about 80% eaten left on an Americana tablemat. The two wondered the streets of Harper Bay seeing the lifeless bodies forever frozen in a timeless void. Eternal prisoners to Marianne’s inventing and Kim’s greed. The two women felt a constant chill in their spines as they passed each still body, wondering if they can ever save them and return them to their everyday lives.</p><p><br/>
“I can’t believe this!” Marianne lamented, lifting her arms into the air. “I create something that defies the laws of quantum mechanics and look where it gets me. Trapped in a timeless void with no hope of escape.” She looked towards Kim, the rotund drummer sulking with her head nested above her bosom, aimlessly kicking her feet upon the realization she betrayed her friend’s trust, and admittedly getting them into this mess. The once sore inventor sighed upon the sight, well aware of Kim’s remorse for the nightmare they were now living in, and yet still she knew she was partly responsible. Waiting out the clock, or keeping a better eye on it could have prevented this tragedy, but there was no use in being angry now. “Well...if I was to be stuck in eternal limbo to where life stays stuck forever and we both technically die before the age of thirty since time only passes for us and no one else, glad it’s with you Kim.”</p><p><br/>
“Same, granted I’m, I’m kinda sorry about well, causing this whole thing to happen. And for, ya know, fighting with ya.”</p><p><br/>
“Apology accepted, granted there’s not much we can do about it now.”</p><p><br/>
“Can’t we ask that wheelchair guy about it? I mean he’s smart right?”</p><p><br/>
“Kim, he passed on years ago, and even if he didn’t, frozen in time remember?”</p><p><br/>
“Oh, right.” At that moment the deafening silence was disrupted by a loud rumbling. Once again, the old drum demanded its fill.</p><p><br/>
“Didn’t you just eat about like, fifteen pounds of meat with that burger?”</p><p><br/>
“About eleven, you did interrupt me remember?” Kim said as she gently caressed her belly, trying to soothe the starving beast. “Look, I’m a growing girl all right? How ‘bout Alberto’s?”</p><p><br/>
“Sure, not like we have much else to do.” Marianne dully replied, not even remarking on Kim’s less than subtle wordplay. The two eventually made their way to their destination: <em>Alberto’s Pizzeria,</em> a small pizza place adorned with a black and white checkerboard façade and interior, accompanied by a marble countertop and old fashioned brick oven. Alberto himself was cleaning off said countertop when time stopped and his newest employee was just cleaning the floors. One with a cheery demeanor humming a merry tune, the other with a sullied grimace of work not worth minimum wage. Kim squeezed her way through the door with Marianne following right behind them as they soon reached the counter.</p><p><br/>
“Yo, Alberto!” Kim hollered, “Two large pies for two large gals!”</p><p><br/>
“Really Kim?”</p><p><br/>
“Hey, I call it how I see it.” That being said, the duo got no response. Alberto still toiled away at the counter and the young man cleaning tiles the same. “Alberto! You know it’s kinda rude to ignore paying customers!”</p><p><br/>
“I thought you said you had no money.”</p><p><br/>
“You do. You don’t mind laying it out right?” Marianne leered over at her friend, incredibly unamused. “Fine, I’ll pay you back next paycheck. Kim’s attention soon turned to Alberto again, still not giving them any light of day. “Alberto! Come on!”</p><p><br/>
“Kim.”</p><p><br/>
“What?”</p><p><br/>
“Frozen in time, remember?” The realization soon hit Kim like a truckload of bricks. If time is frozen, so is everyone else. And if everyone is frozen, no one can make food.</p><p><br/>
“Uhhh, well we can make pizza ourselves right? I mean the oven’s right there and-”</p><p><br/>
“Oven won’t work, takes time to heat up the oven, and even if it is preheated, time isn’t passing. Heat isn’t coming out. Remember the water slide?”</p><p><br/>
“My butt is still chafing thanks for the reminder.” Kim said rather annoyed. “I know! I’ll just look it up online!”</p><p><br/>
“Kim, what part of frozen in time did you not understand?”</p><p><br/>
“Okay Google, how do you restart time…let me guess, light can’t travel in a timeless void?”</p><p><br/>
“Yep, so our only real option left is…”</p><p><br/>
“Go back to your workshop, and recreated everything so you remake the watch!”</p><p><br/>
“But Kim, I was running on no sleep for three days, and I didn’t even make blueprints! I have no idea what I’m doing!”</p><p><br/>
“Eh, science is all about throwing stuff at things and seeing if it works right? Not like we have much else to do.”</p><p><br/>
“That is the most ignorant means of describing science I have ever, fine, it’s worth a shot.” With that they soon hopped back in Kim’s SUV, only to realize that the same issues applied to the van. No time means no traveling, so they were forced to hike back to the workshop. Kim spent most of the time whining about her gut smashing right into her thighs as they ran back.</p><p><br/>
“Okay,” Marianne remarked as she stormed the workshop for parts, “there should be enough food here to last a month, so we won’t starve to death for a while.”</p><p><br/>
“Uhh…”</p><p><br/>
“Right, didn’t account for you Kim. So we only have enough food for a week…oh no.”</p><p><br/>
“What?</p><p><br/>
“Listen Kim, if I can’t get a new watch turned out before we starve to death, we’re not making it out of this alive.”</p><p><br/>
“If that’s the case I think we had a good run.”</p><p><br/>
“Please don’t say that! Now pass me that wrench.”</p><p><br/>
“On it.” Marianne toiled day and night constantly trying to recreate the cursed watch that caused all this chaos, all the while Kim being her able assistant, fetching anything for the weary inventor from parts, to tools, to simple snacks. However, days soon turned to weeks, and with no food or water remaining, morale was winding down, along with their vitality.”<br/>
“Well,” a weakened Marianne feebly remarked, “it took far longer than expected, but I think, I think this should do it.” Marianne attempted to push down on the watch, desperate to restart time, but then a searing pain coursed through her body. The last bit of strength she had left in her went out, and she collapsed onto the floor, with the watch bouncing against the wooden bench above.</p><p><br/>
“Kim…Kim…I’m not, I’m not going to make it.” Marianne was on death’s doorbell, far too weak from the lack of sleep and nourishment. “You, you need to push the watch, and save the world Kim. Kim?” As Marianne’s eyes began to close, she struggled to make out a figure on the floor next to her. Her final glimmers revealed the figure to be Kim’s, who seemed to have passed on at least a few days prior. “No, no!” Cried out the dying inventor. “It can’t be, this, this can’t be really happening!” But it was too late, Marianne soon closed her eyes for the last time. Both her, and her best friend lay dead across the cold lifeless floor, freed from a world forever locked in limbo. No one aware of their mishaps, and no one able to save them or the planet from a timeless eternity. And as the inventor began to sink to the ground, there was nothing to be heard but silence, and yet…</p><p><br/>
<em>
    <strong>***</strong>
  </em>
</p><p><br/>
<em>SLAM!</em>
</p><p><br/>
“Who? What? Where? <strong>EEP!</strong>”</p><p><br/>
“And the table split in half! A new record!”</p><p><br/>
“So what you’re saying is that you’re paying me for a new table, right?”</p><p><br/>
“…that I wish I knew who was responsible for so I can give them a piece of my mind. Oh when I get my hand on that rapscallion…”</p><p><br/>
“So, any reason why you barged in here unannounced?”</p><p><br/>
“Like I need a reason to see my best friend? Geez, you look terrible, what happened?”</p><p><br/>
“…I’ve been up the last three days non-stop i-in-inevent<em><strong>AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!</strong></em>” The woman looked down at her hand to see a tiny pocket watch gripped within. Suddenly a surge of emotions coursed through her, as if repressed memories have since flooded to the forefront of her psyche.</p><p><br/>
“Yo, Marianne, what happened? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Kim stared puzzled at Marianne, who quickly stored the watch in a marked box labeled “Cursed Creations” before immediately locking it up, never to be seen again.<br/>
“Kim, you don’t understand. That watch, that blasted watch, it can stop time.”</p><p><br/>
“Okay now you’re yanking my chain here. Come on, a watch that stops time? That’s impossible.”</p><p><br/>
“It can I swear. You were there, and you tried riding the Cyclone while no water was running. You ordered so much cake we had to stop time to eat it all in a single night. Then there was Bob’s where it broke and then we were here…where we…perished…trying to…fix…it?”</p><p><br/>
“Seems like you had a nightmare there Marianne. Someone forget to have their cookies before bed?”</p><p><br/>
“But Kim, it felt so, real.”</p><p><br/>
“Maybe it can stop time, who knows. If you say it can I’ll believe you, you’ve gone and built some amazing things before.”</p><p>“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Marianne’s worries were still uneased as she once again looked over to the watch, feeling its chaotic aura.</p><p><br/>
“Come on, let’s go into town and get you some breakfast, my treat.” Marianne was keen to take up Kim’s offer, if not just to escape the workshop for a little while. As the two went up the spiral staircase, Marianne took one final glance at the lab and at the box where she stuffed that watch. Whether it was a normal watch or not did not concern her. The nightmare shook her to the point where it couldn’t be a coincidence, and the fate of the world was not worth experimenting on. However, as they exited the Victorian-era abode, Kim did pop one question.</p><p><br/>
“Oh by the way, are you sure we can’t use that watch? Doc said I need someone to sign a note saying I can run a decent distance in under two minutes, don’t ask, and-” Before Kim could continue, Marianne immediately shove her own smartphone right in front of Kim’s face.</p><p><br/>
“Just use my phone, okay?”</p>
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